A Long Way Home

A Toast to the Grooms(men) and Brides(maids)

Mia had managed to convince her parents to let her have the house for a weekend early in the summer before they took over. It had given her mild anxiety to call her parents up and ask for such a favor. She wasn't even sure why she was doing it. It wasn't as though max had been a good friend lately. But Maxine was Mia's oldest friend, pretty much the only one whose name her parents remembered. So it wasn't that difficult of a sell when she noted the weekend was indeed for dear old Maxine. She had texted Drew to confirm the date and outside of that, she had pawned off the responsibilities. He could handle it. He had been polite but cold in their brief text exchange and she figured it would be the same in person.

After their fight, Mia had gotten a call from Maxine who had finally gotten around to asking her to be her maid of honor. She'd given her a list of women to invite to the weekend and what she would and would not tolerate in terms of games. Ideally, Max wanted a chill weekend by the pool with lots of champagne, maybe a trip to the beach and some phenomenal food.

What was supposed to be a three day weekend quickly devolved into just Saturday and Sunday due to Max's work schedule. At first, Mia was disappointed. She wanted, no she needed, the time out of the city. But one less night around Drew wouldn't be the worst. Besides, she would head up there early and get a good night's sleep before the crowd arrived. She had deliberately declined offers to drive on Saturday morning. The last thing she wanted to be was stuck in a car with Maxine's doctor friends or worse, Drew and Mike. No, Mia instead chose to come out east via train on Friday morning to have some peace and quiet.

When she arrived at the house, it was as though she was transported to another time and place. A simpler one at that. She had grown up here in the summer. The house held memories that no other place did. She eagerly opened the windows, letting in the cool early summer breeze seep in. She could hear the birds chirping. By nightfall, that sound would be replaced with the hum of crickets and cicadas.

Stepping outside, she put her feet in the grass then in the pool, dipping her toes gingerly in the cold water. She needed to remember to turn on the heater before everyone arrived. Everything felt better when she had more room to breathe. It was no accident that she thrived in fresh air and crumbled in the city life. She had always been meant for wide open spaces, Hamptons or otherwise.

The next morning after a quiet night of Netflix and take out Italian, Mia awoke to the sound of the side door opening. She had texted Maxine to let herself in using the key under the mat. But she'd wrongfully assumed Max would show up at a normal person hour. Reaching over to check her phone she read the time and groaned. 7 am. She hadn't even had time to buy groceries yet.

She could hear the murmur of a few voices in her kitchen and hauled herself out of bed. She threw on a sweatshirt over her pajamas and padded down the stairs thankfully remembering to remove her permanent retainer first.

"Hello hello!" Max sing-songed as she spotted Mia from the kitchen. The side door was open and Mia could see Mike emptying items from their rental car.

"I'm so happy to be here! Sorry we didn't mean to wake you up." Max gave her a quick squeeze before turning around to the open door.

"Guys, come in come in make yourselves at home." Mia was confused. She had confirmed with the other girls that they weren't arriving until 10 am. Who could Max possibly be talking to?

She went about putting on coffee and ran her hands over her eyes. She heard a few voices but her brain hadn't quite caught up to processing anything yet.

"You will just love it here. Mia's parents designed the entire thing and it's amazing." Maxine was arm in arm with a blonde woman who looked vaguely familiar. She was leading her down the hallway outside of the kitchen and into the living room.